New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Austin, TX based neo-psychedelic indie rock group THE CUCKOOS are a young act that not only draw from the genre's heady experimental roots musically, but further set the tone with their compelling lyrics and eclectic stylings. On their new single, the irresistibly catchy "Lady Boy," lead vocalist, keyboardist and songwriter KENNETH WAYNE FROST challenges society's views of masculinity. "I feel like I'm taking jabs at toxic masculinity," as he says in a personalized essay regarding the song's meaning copied below, "without bashing masculinity while relishing in my own femininity. And pointing out a fake culture we're living in from the left and the right."
"Lady Boy" is the fourth single taken from their debut full-length album (due later this year) following the captivating tracks "Why Don't U Ever Call Me Anymore," "Carpe Diem" and "We Can Take A Trip To Another Day." Recorded by Grammy-nominated producer Chris "Frenchie" Smith (The Toadies, The Dandy Warhols) and mastered by Grammy award-winning engineer Gavin Lurssen (Game of Thrones, Chris Cornell, Eagles of Death Metal), this marks the first new music since their debut self-titled EP in 2017. Watch the "Lady Boy" video here:
"My generation praises acceptance and equality," shares FROST. "We care about the environment, we recycle, we don't judge people, we don't care what bathroom you use, we don't care what your hair looks like, or what clothes you wear, whether you're white, black, polka-dotted, straight, gay, or somewhere in between. We're supposed to love everybody and treat everybody kindly and be accepting and supportive of them.
But we're not. We pretend to be. We post about it online. All the time. We share the articles, we use the Snapchat filters, we call people out. We bully people. We're mean. I'm guilty of it too.
We think we can hide behind positive social movements and distort them for our own personal agenda of building our digital clout. We care so much about saying the right thing on social media that we completely ignore how we actually treat people sometimes. Just because you support something well intentioned doesn't mean you get a free karma coin to treat others poorly.
That's not the kind of world I wanna live in. I have a lot of faith in our younger people. We're living in 2019 and there's some crazy shit going down. It's our duty to love one another and get our own heads out of our asses and start working together.
I guess my point is sometimes we hurt people without realizing or intending to. Sometimes we are trying to do something good, but get so lost along the way that we end up causing more harm than good. I want everybody to know that it doesn't matter where you come from, what you look like, who you want to sleep with, what you identify as, or what you like to eat for breakfast. We're all human beings. None of us are better than one another. And we can all be assholes. But at the end of the day we're all just looking for a good time. Can you dig?"
Some early critical praise on THE CUCKOOS:
"Imagine The Doors, Joy Division and Rick James writing songs with Tame Impala and you start to get an idea of the rock and roll magic being conjured by Austin group The Cuckoos." - Glide Magazine
"…a catchy blast of streetwise soul, libidinous groove and funky swagger. With a sonic attack that brings to mind everyone from Prince to the Black Angels, it's no wonder that The Cuckoos were named by Classic Rock Magazine as the #1 Psych band to watch out for." - Stereo Embers
"The group transports us back to an era filled with the kind of vibrant hues favored by The Doors and Love while remaining very much of this moment, and ever so slightly, the future." - PopMatters
THE CUCKOOS will reunite with The Matt Gilmour Band (which features the son of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour) in October, following a successful West Coast run earlier this summer. Dates are as follows:
10/10 - Milwaukee, WI - Shank Hall
10/11 - Kalkaska, MI - The Fireball Lounge
10/12 - Chicago, IL - Reggie's Rock Club.
